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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Before the US Open women's wild cards are released, I wanted to post a link to my Kalamazoo wrap-up story for The Tennis Recruiting Network, and two of the four brief videos from the Kalamazoo finals that I've posted to my YouTube channel.

The Columbus Dispatch posted this story on Buchanan's win, and he talks about the lesson he learned from his loss to USC's Daniel Nguyen in the NCAA team finals.

Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald wrote this feature on that city's hometown champion, Gonzales Austin.

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USTA overall mission statement: “To Promote and Develop the Growth of Tennis”, and the USTA Player Development: “The goal of USTA Player Development is to provide American junior, collegiate and young professional players the opportunities to reach their maximum potential’, or “...to help American players reach the top of the professional game.”

Tennis Australia: “Making Australia the greatest tennis nation on the planet.”, “Create Champions – the mark of a great tennis nation. More highly ranking players and more Grand Slam Champions.”

So, US is "be the best you can be" which is a subjective goal, while the others I quote are more specific: produce Grand Slam Champions.Unless specific objective goals are established (and reflected in the mission statement), the USTA has no accountability since there are no metrics to measure the deliverables.

Well, they also have a combined population of what...50 million? which is 1/6 of the US. The point is that until the clear measureable goals are set it is hard to develop a decent plan and evaluate the results.

are you really comparing the US with australia and canada??? canada hasnt produced a tennis player...ever?? unless you count greg rusedski, who plays for the UK now. and australia has produced a 2 recently, hewitt and rusedski. give me a break

Yep, we've all been dodging the real problem: a nebulous mission statement. Edit that and we'll be swimming in Grand Slam champions.

By the way, not listing measurable goals in the mission statement doesn't mean they don't have them. There are mission statements and then there are goals.

I would also contend that maximizing each player's potential is not any less lofty. It may not be measurable, but then that's not really the purpose of the mission statement.

I also agree with Austin that Canada and Australia are not exactly countries to aspire to in terms of player development, especially Canada, which has a mere one player in the top 200. At least cite Spain or France's mission statement if you're going to make this argument.

Austin, You mention Australia only has Hewitt in the past thirty years, but you overlook Rafter"s two slams and also Pat Cash in 1987. They also have about 53 overall slam titles in that span if you count doubles and mixed. Hrdly the token nation you project.

Man, you shouldn't be talking tennis without knowing your facts. Pat Rafter was Australian, remember him. Won the US Open in 97 and 98. Runner up at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001. Hewitt won the US in 2001 then Wimbledon in 2002. Philippouissis was runner-up at Wimbledon in 2003 and the US in 97. Last time I looked, that was all within the last 12 years,not 30.

No one has commented on the playing surface effects but the newly resurfaced Stowe courts were slower than previous years and probably favored Buchanan's grinding game. It may have help the grinders and took the sting out of some the hitters like Domijian, Overbeek and Kandath. Interestng to see who Chase gets to play at the USO.

When I watch the video of Chase playing, it is hard not to compare that to what you are "used" to seeing on TV with top professionals.

So I can't tell if it is the quality of that video vs. TV-quality production which I know is part of the difference, but it just looks like a huge gap from the quality of Chase's game to what you see on TV. Maybe that is just stating the obvious.

When I read Chase's comments though on Collette's post (NY Post blog?), he said about returning to Ohio State:

“The Open could change things,” Buchanan said, allowing that a big win in New York could result in “a whole other story.”

I'm glad he is confident (he should be) and I wish him the best.....but I think another year of college is in store for him.....hope to see him on the big screen!!